Dr. Dre

February 12, 2010

Dr. Dre filed a lawsuit against his former record label in federal court Thursday in Los Angeles, claiming it released a new version of The Chronic without his permission and hasn't paid him royalties since he left Death Row in 1996.

"When it came to paying artist royalties and honoring limits on Dr. Dre recordings that could be released, the 'new' Death Row Records, to quote our client, 'forgot about Dre,'" attorney Howard King said in a statement. "This lawsuit will make sure they remember."

The label, renamed WIDEawake Death Row Records after the original went bankrupt and was purchased by WIDEawake Entertainment Group, released The Chronic Re-Lit last year. A Dr. Dre greatest hits collection called Chronicles also was released in 2007 by Death Row. Neither were released with his permission or his cooperation, according to Dre, whose real name is Andre Young.

Dre also claims in the suit that his original contract did not include digital distribution rights, yet the new owners of the label have been selling digital copies of The Chronic. The album originally dropped in 1992.

January 30, 2010

The 411 Online has kept a record of every rap Grammy ever awarded, but we've never tried predicting who would win before. That changes now. It's not easy getting into the warped mind of the Grammy voters, who often overvalue pop artists, fall in love with creating repeat winners or just generally have no clue.

January 27, 2010

Dr. Dre is a notorious perfectionist, so it comes as no surprise that he takes years between albums. But we've entered our second decade of waiting for Detox, as Dre's last album was released in November 1999. He might have thought it was safe to hide out overseas, but Great Britain's The Guardian newspaper caught up with the hip-hop legend this weekend and asked him what the holdup was.

"I'm working hard on it. I'm stopping to work on other artists in-between, but the minute it's done and I feel it right here, that's when it will come out," Dre told The Guardian. "Hopefully the beginning of 2010."

But that timetable was ambitious, and even Dre quickly admitted that the key word in that quote was "hopefully": "You'll probably hear something in a year or so," he told Slam magazine for their March issue. That puts the latest ETA at January 2011, but undoubtedly he'll have another excuse ready by then. Perhaps too much time in the clubs?

"I have to go out to clubs now," Dre told The Guardian. "You need to understand what people are listening to."

He didn't say if that same kind of Detox research from several years ago still helps him today.

It's become a nearly annual winter ritual for Dre to tease the release of Detox, dating back at least to 2002 in The 411 Online's records. That January he said he it could be done by the end of the year, a statement he's echoed in one way or another in January 2006, December 2006, December 2008 and now January 2010. (Dre did not, however, address it in our interview with him in 1995. Back then, it was the Dr. Dre-Ice Cube reunion album that was perpetually on hold. Still waiting for Helter Skelter.)

More than just fans are fiending for another hit of Dre's golden touch.

"He's gonna drop it. He's just ... a perfectionist," Warren G told Hard Knock TV. "When he feels right, that's when he's gonna let it go. I think he's close because when he starts working with Snoop, that's when I know he's getting down to the wire."

And Snoop Dogg certainly won't be the only one making a guest appearance.

"Me and him are supposed to do a record on there," Warren G added. "He said as soon as he finds the right record, with the right melody, we'll do it. I think it'll be something that the world would love to see 'cause it's never been done. The publicity on it will be huge. It's like, 'Warren G and Dr. Dre doing a song? That's crazy.' I'm open. I'm with it."

Who knows if that collaboration will become that "perfect song" Dre mentioned he is searching for.

"I don't think I've done that record yet," Dre told The Guardian. "I'll know what it is when it comes; I know exactly what it is in my head, but I haven't done it yet. It's close. ... Once that sound is right, once that mix is right, it's a feeling that you get. It's unexplainable."

And of course, once Detox finally does hit stores, Dre thinks there's only one way to listen to it: Through his Beats by Dr. Dre line of headphones. "I just want to get my music out and make sure that it's heard in the right way," Dre said, who added that speakers might be next because so many people are listening to music "the wrong way" -- on cell phones, MP3 players, etc. "Once it gets to your computer, everything's compressed. It's like smashing sound. So we're trying to fix that."

January 20, 2009

The late MC Breed coined the phrase in 1990 on "Ain't No Future in Yo' Frontin'." George Clinton loved it so much he built a song around it in 1993, recruiting the likes of Ice Cube, Dr. Dre, Humpty Hump, Flavor Flav, Yo-Yo and Breed himself for the single and video.

As Barack Obama is sworn in as President of the United States, The 411 Online pauses to celebrate what no one thought was possible 19, 16 -- or even a couple -- years ago.

January 12, 2009

A track from the long-awaited Detox album, called "Could Have Been You," has found its way to the Internet. And Dre is not pleased. Of course, you wouldn't be either if it had a hook with crappy lyrics -- literally -- sung by R. Kelly.

January 07, 2009

While the world still waits for Detox, some of Dr. Dre's roadblocks are slowly moving out of the way.

Eminem's now-completed "Crack a Bottle" single finally dropped Tuesday. An earlier version of the song leaked in November with Em doing Dre's vocals for the legendary producer to use as a reference track.

Meanwhile, 50 Cent, who also is featured on "Bottle," unveiled his latest, "I Get It In," on Hot 97 that night, as well as a tracklisting of his upcoming disc. It shows four production credits for Dre, who is also expected to appear on the mic.

January 05, 2009

After more than four months, the Los Angeles County coroner's office has released the results of the autopsy on Dr. Dre's son.

Andre Young Jr. died of "morphine and heroin intoxication" on Aug. 23 at the family's Woodland Hills home, coroner's office assistant chief Ed Winter told the Los Angeles Times. The death was ruled an accidental overdose.

Winter said that the autopsy was completed within days of the 20-year-old's death, but determining the cause of death took so long because of the amount of tests performed.

December 17, 2008

One casualty of Eminem's upcoming album is a frequent visitor to the backburner: Dr. Dre's long-awaited Detox album.

Eminem told Billboard that he and Dre have been "up to our old mischievous ways" during the making of Relapse. (Isn't that supposed to come after the detox?)

It will be Em's first album since 2004's Encore, which gave the MC a much needed break from over-exposure and will likely set this disc up to succeed. However, Eminem is "really heated" about leaks, including one that had him reciting Dre's lines. "It wasn't close to finished, and it even has me doing guide vocals for Dre as a suggestion of how he could lay his verses down," he said in the interview, which was conducted via e-mail. It's like someone catches you peeping in your window
before you got the Spider Man costume all zipped up! Nobody is supposed to see that."

Swizz Beats' claims that he had worked on a sequel to "Stan" also raised Em's temp.

"There isn't a 'Stan 2,' and there won't be. Stan drove his car off a bridge and I'm not writing a song as Stan's ghost. That would just be really corny... I haven't worked with Swizz on this album," adding that Dre is his preferred producer.

"I don't have chemistry like that with anyone else as far as producers go -- not even close. Dre will end up producing the majority of the tracks on Relapse."

December 16, 2008

Ever wondered what your favorite hip-hop albums would look like if they were portrayed by those little, yellow Lego men you played with as a kid? No? Me neither. But then again, I never envisioned Star Wars and Indiana Jones characters in that shade either, playing video games no less.

But you've gotta see what Format has done with some of hip-hop's classic albums. From Common and Run DMC to EPMD and Dr. Dre, to De La Soul and Gang Starr, they've got them all. Some work better than others, but all are worth a look. (Found via Cool Hunting)